Frontier Bed
"This is the end of a long and tedious journey"
By Tamar Stone
New York: Tamar Stone, 2010. One-of-a-Kind.
21 x 12 x 14" doll bed. Hand- and machine-stitched bed coverings. Machine embroidered text.
Bed components:
Antique collapsible wood doll bed with slatted wood mattress support.
Pillow Case: 5 x 7", vintage fringed linen napkin with covered wagon family laser transferred image.
Pillow: 4.5 x 6.5", vintage blue stripped cotton ticking, hand stuffed with vintage feathers.
Blanket: 24.75 x 25.5", rolled, vintage rose and beige plaid wool/cotton blanket with flower pattern.
Blanket: 21.5 x 17.75", vintage rose and beige plaid wool/cotton blanket with flower pattern.
Top Sheet: 25 x 19", vintage white cotton bed sheet with sewn folded edge.
Bottom Sheet: 26 x 19", vintage white cotton bed sheet.
Mattress: 20 x 12 x 1" Gold Metal Flour sack, vintage sack and pink floral pillow case ticking, stuffed with vintage feathers.
Mattress: 19 x 10.5" stripped ticking, hand tied vintage blue stripped cotton mattress ticking, stuffed with vintage feathers.
Frontier Bed records and represents the spirit of several generations of non-indigenous 19th-century women who moved west across the North American continent. The bed as symbol of the gamut of an individual life – the pain and joy of birth, the fear and thrill of conception, the agony and peace of death – serves well as a page and palette for the lives these stories represent.
The pages are a pillow, a pillow case, two blankets, top and bottom sheet, feather topper, and striped ticking mattress – all made from vintage materials (vintage used here to mean prior to 1960). The embroidered texts are excerpts from journal entries written by women who were making the journey across the American West in the 1800's. As the artist says, "In order to read these intimate stories the reader must unmake each bed, pulling back the covers to 'turn the pages.' In order to close the book, one must re-make the bed, mimicking the actions of women’s housework."
A subtle yet prevailing whiff of strength and survival pervades Frontier Bed. These women may have been alone, surely if they had time they were lonely, but each took time to write, to write something, to write something for someone, to write something for someone in the attempt – and almost certainly a hope – to connect. First, simple descriptions, basic sensory perceptions, of places and events and strangeness; eventually of death, inevitable, sad, but not final: the final excerpt includes advice for those who might follow. We passed, we saw, we did this and that, we died – but we will continue. Tomorrow and tomorrow may bring more beds to muss and remake, but it's a mussing and remaking that reveals the strength we have. This may be artistic license, but it seems appropriate to the spirit honored and remembered here.
Tamar Stone: "These are the stories of women who traveled across the country on the Overland Trail during the 1800‘s. They came from a variety of backgrounds, and each had their own reasons to be leaving home to start a new life out west. Included are stories of life and death, attacks (pestilence and Indian) ... and even, fashion. The fact that they would have the wherewithal at some point during the day, to write down their feelings and observations in letters and diaries, is an amazing feat, considering what could only be considered the constant day-to-day drudgery of trying to survive, and moving forward on the trail.
"I for one am so thankful that they had the strength to do so. They are truly an inspiration."
Top sheet, Nancy H., 1866-67:
"At night we placed our weapons of defense by the sides of our beds in our tents.
I claimed the ax for mine, and always saw that it was close to me,
but I never had an occasion to use it on an Indian."
$6,000 |
Click image for more
Click image for more
|
|
Dolls on the Road
By Tamar Stone
New York, New York: Picturetown, Inc., 2007. Edition of 25.
6 x 8". Softcover, perfect bound, printed digitally in color. Page backgrounds consist of local maps of the areas where the photos were taken as well as various shades of astro turf.
Tamar Stone: "From the beloved and worshipped, to the abused and the abandoned, these Polaroid photos document dolls found at flea markets, county fairs, yard sales and doll shows in my travels throughout the U.S from the 1990’s to the current day. Exploring the juxtaposition of dolls, these books show artifacts that have been discarded or outgrown by previous owners, now found in ironic environments with unchanged emotion, frequently naked and no longer playing with other toys. The books raise questions of what happens to our toys of yesterday and the childhood memories that are associated with them."
Vol. 1: Barbie and Ken Series. 19 double-sided pages including covers. $22.50
Vol. 2: Baby Dolls and Others. 21 double-sided pages including covers. $22.50 |
Vol. 1 Click image for more
Vol. 2 Click image for more
|
